Why Should The LGBT Community Be Accepted By Society?

Updated on July 5, 2011

My brief take on the question.

I’ve seen this question pop up a few times on Hubpages and there have been a lot of very productive answers floating around, but there has also been a smattering of very unproductive and somewhat hateful responses also. I wanted to weigh in with a few of what I think are incredibly important pieces to this question.

Ignorance; defined as the lack of knowledge, information, or education; the state of being ignorant. Thank you, dictionary.com, for this heart-warming piece of information.

Note: Any use of the label ignorance is not meant as a degradation to all people who do not have the same views as I. It is simply meant as a state of being, a state of having a lack of information or even misinformation. This is to say that I am aware of the fact that some may be offended by the use of the term.

Here’s the bottom line. Regardless of sexual orientation; or even race, gender, religion, occupation, etcetera, all individuals are simply that; individual human beings. Everyone breathes, feels emotion, feels pain, and makes individual choices in this life; and everyone has been given the basic human right to do so.

Perhaps you don’t believe in the lifestyle of an LGBT individual and perhaps you are ignorant of it, but it doesn’t mean that any LGBT individual is any different than every other living, breathing, human soul in this world. It especially does not mean that any LGBT individual should be treated as less than human because of your beliefs.

The thing is, you don’t have to agree with the lifestyle, but you do have to accept that it is a part of this society, and this world. If nothing else at least respect your fellow human beings. It’s there, whether you like it or not, it exists. It exists along with the hundreds of other elements of life and society that you may not like and have to accept.

I have found that a lot of people with whom have hatred/disrespect/discrimination towards LGBT individuals, have trouble moving past the physical sexual act of anyone who is LGBT. They hear, “Hi, I’m gay,” and respond with “oh that’s disgusting.” My response is “what exactly is disgusting, being human? Having a different lifestyle?” Move past the thoughts about how an LGBT individual has sex, and recognize them as human beings. I don’t meet someone new and think, “wow, I wonder how you have sex?” That’s not how any functional relationship or acquaintance could ever begin.

The most important thing to remember, regardless of your stance on the issue, is that not every human being has the same belief system as you. Nor do they have the same religion, background, socioeconomic status, and on and on. Go back to your elementary school days when your teacher said, “treat others how you would like to be treated.”

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